Coal-Mining Women in Japan

This unique book explores the lives of the thousands of women who labored in Japan’s coal mines in the years 1868 to 1930. It examines their working lives, their family lives, their aspirations, achievements and disappointments. Drawing heavily on interview material with the miners themselves, W. Donald Burton combines translations of their stories with features of Japanese society at the time and coal mining technology and presents a complex account of the women’s lives, as well providing a keen insight on gender relations and the industrial and labor history of Japan.